WOMEN AS MILLION-MAKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 166, 4 July 1908, Page 4

WOMEN AS MILLION-MAKERS.

AN A.MKUH A.V LADY WHO MADE C2.<Wo,otl(> A YEAH.

In these days of Suffragettes and emancipated females generally, one is not surprised to find women boldly entering the arena of finance and matching their wits successfully against the most astute of their malt- rivals. l!ut for a woman without any training in the arts of speculation to puts its cleverest and most resolute "bears'' to iligl't and to make .tl2ll,H(l(l in a few days is a feat for which one is scarcely prepared.

And yet this was the achievement, some lime ago, of lime, lincliellc, of I'aris. who, in order to save her husband from a ■■bear" raid on the slocks which he held, fought theiii single-hand-ed, and came out of the unequal contest a winner of :S,oW.ul)nir.!

However novel uml startling such i' feat may In- in, l'mntL", in America "'I. would scarcely excite any attention; for across tin- Atlantic women liiivc proved for sonic years |iast that Hie men arc no longer io have a monopoly of millionmaking. One of the most .lari!i<r and successful of these lady financiers is Mrs. Hernia nil Oelviehs, wlio is lieUl in considerable awe by her masculine rivals in Wall Street," A few years ago Mrs. Oelrielis decided to take the management of lier business affairs out of lier luiaIntill's hands into her own. Naturally, all lier friends were aghast at lier audacity, and predicted Unit she. would soon make "ducks and drakes" of her fortune. But Mrs. Oelrielis only smiled—the smile of the eoiilitlciit, capable woman. She knew better. Realising her estate, she commenced operations in Walt Street with a, capital of £500,001), and by clever speculation in railroad shares she had increased her fortune fivefold in a year, making money at the phenomenal rate, even for America, of £2,000,000 per annum. But even Mrs. Oelrielis lias a formidable rival of lier own sex in Mrs. Ella Rawls Reader, who has earned the right to lie considered one of the smartest business women in the whole world. A dozen years ago Mrs. Healer was addressing envelope!) in a. Xew York newspaper office anil four years later she was head of the largest reporting agency in the city.

Then' it was that this remarkable woman who is still in the early thirties, and who is described as "very pretty, with a fascinating smile, charming manners, and a sweet and gentle voice.'' determined Io show what a woman, could do iu the realm of finance. And hov far she has succeeded is proved by the following, among many similar sensational coups which have made such financial giants as Mr. Picrpont .Morgan gasp with wonder. She has organised a .(.•2,000,000 railway in opposition to Air. Morgan himself; induced the House of Lords to adopt the Sprague system on the Central London "tube"; wrested from powerful rivals a concession for a railway through the dominions of the Sultan'of .lobore; settled a South American revolution at, her breakfast-table: entered into competition with Wail Street to control the copper interests of Peru, and fought President Roosevelt for concessions in San Domingo, involving over C 20.000.000. .Mrs. Ilctev Green has. of course, long been recognised us one of the shrewdest of American financiers, with a knack of piling up the millions such as lew men have exhibited. Starting with a capital of about half a million, she is to-day worth, at a modest estimate, twenty times that sum. For many years alio has added at least UnllO.Ou'u yearlv to her capital. And yet so thrifty is this lady of many millions that she is said to live on less than CI a week, spending in a vc.r le>*-tliau she earns even four Imurs.

'Mi-. Uichavrt King, another Amen, an lady win. has been the nrchilcel nl' lnT nv.ii furl lines I* to-day tin. owner i.f an estate two anil a lmlf' times us lare.c nWalcs. wliicli she- manages herself uiili consummate skill. Her cstalc is I d .',l l.v f.irlv miles of const, ami is girdled inland liy 11111 l mile-, nf l.arl.i'il wire fence. She is mislrcss of 21111.0110 cattle; emli'r..- :;oo L -i.«-1...v.-,. fur whose iisi' li'.ni"- arc provided: and. wli.-n sli«. v.islic, to leave her domain, nf which slic is ;, veritable lllll'i'll. she 1,;,., |.,j drive lliirtri'u mill's from her door to liw '■fiiiiil pili'."' All o.piallv capable woliniu is Mrs. Ainii.' K. Ilikcrl. preside,,! of tlit- St,.i'Utnn and Tmiiliuiiiii. Kailroad. win. al seventeen was It'll a widow. pruHicallv penniless, willi an infant daughter. Milking lii'i- way n. the California!! gulrt- ' fii'hls shi' began prospecting; ami. al- , ll»i"u-li entirely without, skill, sin- nib : sn successful thai within six months „|„. hail -lO.OOOdols. in Hie bank and owned several valuable mini's.

So phenomenal was her luck in Hurting gold that the .Mexican miners called her

"Oro Madrc" (mother of gold). To-day .Mrs. liikort is said to lie worth niau'v millions of pounds; anil her Intel feat has been in construct a railroad, al a co-t of 1.1 .(NKMols.. to connect hevarious properties. To give lint one more example of lliese

•hustling" women. .Mine. Wolcska. a Russian lady, whose .fortune is estimated at C2.U00.000. owns thousands of square miles of her native country. Scores of villages and small towns are in her "kingdom": her tenants and employees are an army of manv thousands; and tl nl ire business of this vast estate she conducts herself, -without any assistance from iiiciL'; iusignilicant man.